The professional standards framework for teachers is under the spotlight, with a major consultation exercise in train. GTC Chief Executive Carol Adams unpicks the implications for teachers.
After initial teacher training and the induction year, it is easy to consign the whole issue of standards for qualified teacher status (QTS) into a mental filing tray marked "been there, done that."
But suddenly the Government is signalling its belief in the importance of a new professional standards framework for teachers. If that seems irrelevant to you, think again. Plans for a new framework got an honourable mention in the education white paper, the Chancellor's pre-budget statement and in the recent report from the School Teachers' Review Body. So this new framework could have real consequences for your pay and your career progression.
Standards for QTS and for other roles are a description of teaching itself. Above all, therefore, the GTC believes that the primary purpose of a professional standards framework must be to support and drive improvements in practice. We currently have a professional standards framework that has been bolted together over the years. It is more of a ladder than a framework and some of the rungs are missing or wobbly.
The standards for entry into the profession as a newly qualified teacher are clear. They require teachers to have the right knowledge for the age group or subject they will be teaching, to understand how to plan the curriculum, deliver it well and flexibly, to assess and monitor pupils, to support and stretch pupils and to build sound relationships with pupils, parents and colleagues. The standards for QTS incorporate the General Teaching Council’s statement of professional values and practice, describing the shared values and expectations that we, as teachers, have of ourselves.
Once you leave the induction year behind and start to think about new responsibilities and promotion, then things get a little more hazy. It is now possible to advance to threshold in less than five years, but what are the best options for teachers early in their careers?
The lack of clear careers advice for newer teachers is a significant gap, because many of today's new teachers are keen to plan ahead from day one in the profession. The average age of a newly qualified teacher is now 30.
Many of you come to teaching with experience elsewhere in education or in other fields. Throughout your studies, you will have been urged to build a personal professional portfolio, to collect relevant evidence and to plan ahead. You may have studied alongside students entering other professions such as finance, law or nursing, where evidence of continuing professional development is a requirement.
Danger time
We know that the danger time for losing teachers is the first five years in the profession. Early investment in professional development is important for retention, but so are real promotion opportunities. That is why the GTC has created the Engage network to support teachers in their first few years in school. Engage offers NQTs and those who support them a clear guide to an NQT's entitlements and responsibilities, signposts to resources, accessible research, survival tips and the opportunity to take part in conferences and project groups.
All NQTs are enrolled into the Engage network but to receive our termly electronic newsletter, you need to give us your email address. Log on to www.gtce.org.uk/engage to do this.
Newly qualified teachers have a live interest in knowing where the professional standards framework should take them after induction. But so do the rest of us. Whether you are working towards threshold, planning to become an advanced skills teacher, aiming for excellent teacher status or aspiring to headship, the professional standards framework is highly relevant to you.
The Training and Development Agency for schools (TDA) has recently completed the first phase of its consultation with teachers on revisions to the professional standards framework. A draft new framework is scheduled to come out for consultation in February.
No dilution
We have given our view that the existing standards for QTS should not be diluted. Nor do we think that any of the elements within the current standards should be deferred to a later stage in a teacher's career. We believe that greater clarity is needed for teachers about how their professional role aligns with the proposed new standards.
As teachers develop in experience, they will generally exceed the standards required for QTS right across the board. But at more advanced levels, a teacher should be required to demonstrate significant accomplishment or expertise in areas that are relevant to their professional role. This might be advanced subject expertise for a head of department but high level skills in working with other agencies for a teacher with senior pastoral responsibilities. We believe that this should also be clearly set out as part of a framework that reflects teachers' progress to more advanced levels of practice. We are not convinced that there is a clear distinction between the standards expected for advanced skills teachers and those planned for excellent teachers.
The GTC supported the excellent teacher scheme as an important step forward for the profession that should recognise and reward advanced teaching practice. The new scheme should offer significant benefits. It gives a new route for teachers to have excellent classroom practice recognised and to be rewarded for their role in supporting and developing other colleagues.
However the new framework shakes down, we can be pretty sure that teachers' career progression will be more tightly structured, and firmly linked to active performance management and to whole school improvement programmes. For some roles, evidence that you have been actively involved in developing and supporting other colleagues may be required.
You need to be clear about what levels of skill and expertise you will be required to demonstrate as your career progresses.
The School Teachers' Review Body has made an explicit recommendation that the outcomes of continuing professional development should be a factor in determining teachers' pay and pay progression. Disappointingly, the Review Body rejects the idea that teachers should have an entitlement to CPD, arguing instead that there is a mutual responsibility on teachers and schools to plan and provide CPD.
Our immediate response was that this makes it all the more vital that all teachers have access to high quality, effective continuing professional development. It must not be a matter of luck or chance.
The existing professional standards framework suffers from the disadvantage of being a linear ladder. It does not recognise that teachers may want to explore new areas of the curriculum, move in and out of management posts and grow in accomplishment whilst remaining in the same post. We want the new framework to be securely constructed, but flexible too, to allow teachers to move confidently through their careers.
"Access to high quality, effective CPD must not be a matter of luck or chance."
